Thursday, April 30, 2009

Georgia should definitely be on the radar

Daily Kos polled Johnny Isakson and produced pretty similarly mediocre numbers to what we found on him way back in November: a favorability/approval rating barely in positive territory and single digit leads against some opponents who have not shown any interest in running.

I actually think the situation for Isakson is probably worse even than they show. While they have only 12% of Georgians holding no opinion about him one way or the other, we found 45% with no opinion about him. For whatever reason I think the Kos polls tend to overestimate folks' name recognition. For instance they showed 93% of North Carolinians with an opinion of Richard Burr when we find only 65-70% with one and Civitas shows it even lower, around 50%. So I imagine Isakson is a blank slate to many Georgians in addition to having only slightly positive ratings from the ones who do know him.

By the time Democrats realized how vulnerable Saxby Chambliss was last year it was too late to get a real strong candidate- you really have to wonder how someone with a little more charisma than Jim Martin might have fared at the polls in November. Hopefully someone will see this strong opportunity and go for it.